


all you got

by ssstrychnine



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Kiss, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5808367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssstrychnine/pseuds/ssstrychnine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>sledge went back for him, that's it, that's all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all you got

It starts when he goes back for Snafu. It shouldn’t mean as much as it does, in that silent, intense way that Snafu has when something has hit him to his core. Sledge goes back for him, under bullets and fire, and Snafu decides it’s important. He doesn’t show this like anyone else would, he doesn’t say thank you, and Sledge is glad for it really, because he’s new at war and he still thinks he would go back for anyone. Snafu just names him and watches him from high places and shares his cigarettes. 

“I’ll take your watch,” he says, on one of those early, endless nights in Peleliu. He looks moonstruck in the dark, bathed in pale and ghoulish for it. “'m not tired.” 

Sledge just shrugs and drops down further in their shared foxhole and closes his eyes. He doesn’t sleep, he listens to the way the island moves around him. He listens to trees growing and rocks moving and the metallic way guns clatter against their owners. He listens for the way Snafu moves, listens to his knuckles rubbing dust from his eyes and his boots scraping against gravel. He keeps his eyes closed when Snafu settles beside him, he keeps his hands still and his breathing even and he doesn't know why he does it, but it seems important to take the sleep he was given.

“Fuckin' full moon bull _shit_ ,” he hears Snafu mutter and he turns his head to hide his smile.

It’s more than just a gift of sleep though. It’s the way Snafu is always half a step behind him with his hand on his rifle and his eyes on everything. It’s the way they alternate watches, passing weapons between them, carving out holes in gravel and trying to find comfort there. Snafu kills a man who is struggling with his mouth around a blade and he looks at Sledge afterwards, doesn’t explain himself to the nameless marine who was stealing teeth, just undermines his act of mercy with something sharper cut, and Sledge knows that that’s for him too and he looks at the silver sword in his hands and he doesn’t know what to do with it. 

When Ack Ack dies everything gets even harder. Snafu gets more vicious around his edges, more desperate to prove that he belongs to the ugly violence of war. He does disgusting things, terrible things, with his hands and his mouth and his anger. He knows that Sledge sees through it but neither of them say anything, not really, because Sledge is tired to his bones and nothing seems truly wrong anymore. But Snafu does keep Sledge from falling further and Sledge keeps Snafu from imploding and when he finally has time to think on it, back at Pavuvu, shattered and torn, he thinks perhaps they need each other.

Snafu has spent the too-short days of their reprieve slouching around in as little clothing as he can get away with, soaking up sun like it sustains him. He climbs up ragged rock until he finds some perch that suits him and he shuts his eyes and lets the sun pour over him and Sledge is certain it sinks into his skin like water into sand. He goes with him, of course, searching out the highest ground, the brightest sun together, and they don’t talk much but there’s almost never more than an arm lengths distance between them. 

In their tent the sleep next to each other, closer than they need to, and if anyone notices it they keep their mouths shut. Snafu is not someone anyone wants to tangle with and Sledge is slowly gaining his own reputation, based more off his nickname than anything else. There’s only a handful of days before they board a ship again. Only a handful of days until more blood and glory. The night before they leave their tent is empty. Everyone is out, doing what they need to before they get shipped out, drinking or fighting or both. Sledge and Snafu are sitting on Sledge’s cot, passing a cigarette between them, touching shoulder to hip. Sledge doesn’t know how they got there, how they got to mean so much to one another. He went back for him, that’s it. It seems a thousand years ago.

“Okinawa,” says Sledge, breaking the silence. “We’re practically on their doorstep.” 

“Not ringin’ no bell though,” Snafu murmurs, shutting his eyes for a moment, twisting the cigarette through the air, making swirls of smoke and ash and fire. 

Sledge sighs, lets everything out in one breath, death and war, and before he can think about why he shouldn’t, he rests his head against Snafu’s shoulder. Snafu freezes, of course, but only for a moment, then his hand comes up behind them and he cards his fingers through Sledge’s hair and Sledge’s breath hitches when he pulls them closer together.

“Can’t be...can’t be worse than Peleliu,” Snafu says, his voice a low down rumble Snafu can feel through his skin. “We’ll be back at this shit hole before we start to miss it.” 

Sledge doesn’t say anything, just sighs again and thinks about what Snafu might do if he moved closer still, if he turned his head to press his lips against the pulse point at his throat. He bites his lip to keep from doing it and someone shouts something, somewhere close outside, and Snafu pulls away like Sledge is burning hot. 

“You missed all the fun,” Burgin says, when he comes in a moment later. “Someone found something better ‘n piss to drink.”

“Then we didn’t miss shit,” Snafu mutters. 

“We missed Bill throwing up on his shoes.” 

“The girls were drinking too, the nurses,” Burgin says smugly, lying down on his cot, smiling with drunk bliss. 

“Then we didn’t miss shit,” Snafu repeats and when he moves to his own bunk Sedge has to shut his eyes it feels so wrong.

On the ship, on the way to Okinawa, Sledge and Snafu find moments to be alone. Hidden corners and empty rooms. Snafu watches Sledge like he can’t look away, like they’re linked by something invisible, and Sledge tangles their fingers together until his hands ache. Snafu kisses him once, just before they arrive, and it’s a quick thing, dry lips pressed to his, his hands at his elbows, but it feels enormous to Sledge. It feels like everything they are makes sense now and the ways they fit together, awkward and clumsy and sun-struck blind, are sweet and cool as that first sip of water on Peleliu. 

“Don’t get hit,” Sledge says, his voice too high, too carefully casual to sound anything other than terrified.

“You’ll come get me,” Sledge replies, self-confident to the extreme, and Sledge is laughing when they walk together, bumping shoulders, to the boats to take them back to war.

**Author's Note:**

> a little thing. a tiny thing. i love these boys a lot! say hello @oneangryshot oh tumblr if you like, i'm a little scared of such a tiny fandom but that's alright. thank you for reading!


End file.
